– injure soldier
By Ben Adoga
Hoodlums on Thursday attacked the Federal Capital Territory Administration Taskforce, in Gwarimpa, injuring a military officer.
Chairman, FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah, said the attackers were obviously angry that the team returned to enforce urban and regional environmental laws in some illegal markets that were removed few weeks ago.
The mob, on sighting the taskforce team, descended heavily on them with stones, chanting “kill and go, kill and go”, while throwing stones.
They were, however, overpowered when armed security operatives advanced towards them, firing tear gas.
Attah noted that returning to the place was to completely check the criminal activities of the evacuated hoodlums who had increased their operations since the shanties where they hid in were removed.
He confirmed that even an expatriate lady who lived around the area had raised the alarm over the increasing incidence of robbery by the hoodlums who she said often scaled the perimeter fence into her compound.
“We are already used to attack from hoodlums. It is part of the price we pay cleaning the city. We discovered that the people had returned to the illegal markets that we had earlier on removed, converting the place to umbrella market.
“The Abuja Environmental Protection Board enforcement team which went in first to remove the illegal shanties that were rebuilt were attacked, alongside the military personnel.
“One officer was badly injured, but we are not stopping the operation. We will continue with our routine clean-up around the city, Mpape and Iddo.
Also speaking, the secretary, FCT Command and Control, Peter Olumuji, explained that the removal of illegal shanties at 37th Road in the same Gwarimpa, was a response to the distress calls from legal occupants who complained of incessant security breach in the area.
He added that intelligence report showed that illegal drug dealers and criminal suspects had infiltrated the slum.
“This place is behind 37th Road in Gwarimpa. We got information that illegal drug dealers and other criminal elements who operate around Gwarimpa, returned to hibernate here in these shanties,” Olumuji noted.